Two executives who have recently spoken to the Cubs say that Chicago is mentioningBryan LaHair's name in trade talks. LaHair made the All-Star team after a hot start, though as Stark notes, is hitting just .220/.278/.341 since May 15.

The Nationals will win the NL East this year, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports writes. Bryce Harper appears to have solved the team's center field dilemma in the short term and the team's run prevention has been tremendous. General manager Mike Rizzo says his team's first half success isn't a fluke. “I’m very pleased with it — don’t get me wrong — but I’m not shocked by it," he told Morosi. Here are more of Morosi’s notes from around MLB:

Here's the latest news and headlines from around the league on the day Chase Utley told the world he was back with a home run in his first at-bat since the end of the 2011 season…

There are very few viable options for the Dodgers as they look to add a middle-of-the-order bat, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Many of the players currently available are either fringe types or vastly overpaid for their services (like this one).

Olney tweets that Cubs first baseman/outfielder Bryan LaHair has been scouted by the Dodgers, among other teams, but Los Angeles has reservations about his defense. Nonetheless, the Dodgers' need for a quality bat could lead to them overlooking LaHair's shortcomings and acquiring the power hitter before the trade deadline.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge doesn't like the progress his young team has made this season, but he's not ready to start sending players to Triple-A, writes Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. "It's frustrating because I know these guys are a much better offensive club than what we're seeing them do here at home,'' Wedge said. "I don't want to hear anything about the fences, or this, that and the other. It's about what they're doing at home plate and putting up good at-bats and hitting the ball hard."

The Angels have a special assignment scout watching the Reds–Brewers series to check up on a few players including Francisco Rodriguez, tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com. The Angels entered Wednesday night's action four and a half games behind the Rangers for first place in the American League West.

The Cubs officially called up Anthony Rizzo, the team announced, and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets that they now view Bryan LaHair as an outfielder. The Cubs, however, would be willing to move LaHair for "the right offer," according to Morosi (Twitter link).

The Brewers may be one good week away from contention, but the club could always be one bad week away from selling, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Zack Greinke, Francisco Rodriguez, Shaun Marcum, and George Kottaras would all appeal to other clubs, to varying degrees. Milwaukee's farm system has been depleted by trades for Greinke, Marcum, and C.C. Sabathia and could stand to be replenished, opines Rosenthal. He's careful to note that this could be a dicey PR move, as Milwaukee could surpass 3MM fans on the season and selling would send a bad message.

The Yankees completed a sweep against the Nationals on Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C. with a 4-1 victory. The win marked New York's third consecutive sweep of three games or more for the first time since 1998. With the Yankees taking three from the Nationals, the Reds (7-5) are now the lone MLB team with an all-time winning record against the Bronx Bombers. Here's the latest from around the majors…

Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski has already conceded his interest in acquiring a right-handed bat before the non-waiver trade deadline, but any potential move hinges on the health of Victor Martinez, writes Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. “The possibility (of Martinez returning) exists in a strong enough fashion that you have to give it some thought, but I don’t really know where that stands – and I don’t know that we will know until July,” Dombrowski said in an interview Sunday morning. “We may get Martinez and (Al) Alburquerque back. Those would be two pretty good acquisitions, and our bullpen actually has pitched pretty well in recent times.”

ESPN.com's Buster Olney reports (via Twitter) that the Dodgers are not interested in Cubs first baseman Bryan LaHair but are talking with Chicago about right-hander Ryan Dempster. Los Angeles may want to reconsider its stance as LaHair has a slash line of .297/.380/.560 as compared to .261/.322/.368 for the Dodgers' first basemen.

According to calculations by Baseball America, the Red Sox will face increased penalties from MLB if they continue spending at their current pace to go 5% over their draft budget as pointed out by Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal. When a team exceeds its budget by 5% or less, it is penalized by paying 75% on the amount over the threshold. Teams that go over by 5 to 10% are mandated to pay a luxury tax of 100% on the excess spending and forfeit their next first round draft pick.

The Cubs, who rank 14th out of 16 NL teams in runs scored, announced that they replaced hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo with minor league hitting coordinator James Rowson. Here are some more Cubs-related notes and rumors…

President of baseball operations Theo Epstein confirmed that the Cubs are ready to start trading players to improve the organization's future, Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune reports (on Twitter).

Some executives believe Ryan Dempster could be traded early, perhaps even before the All-Star break, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). The Dodgers are interested in Dempster, who is in the last year of his contract.

An American League exec likes the looks of Dempster, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter). "He's pitching well and he'd give you a good character guy/leader," the person said.

David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution lists off a number of reasons why the Braves may not pursue trades for veteran pitchers like Dempster this summer. The new collective bargaining agreement could impact the Braves’ interest in making a deal, and Kris Medlen gives them an additional internal candidate for the rotation.

Derrek Lee would be open to returning for the “right opportunity,” Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). The Pirates could be interested in re-signing Lee, who joined the team in a midseason trade last year.

Matt Garza, Ryan Dempster and Bryan LaHair are all in play as the trade deadline nears, Rosenthal notes (on Twitter). The Cubs could look to supplement their core of young players by dealing established Major Leaguers for controllable players this summer.

Teams looking for rotation help should call the Diamondbacks about Joe Saunders. Arizona wants to get top prospect Trevor Bauer into their rotation, but right now there's just no room.

The identity of the Padres' new owner will not be known before August, leaving the front office to make its own call on Carlos Quentin prior to the trade deadline. They could keep him and make him a qualifying offer after the season (entitling them to draft pick compensation), though they'd be gambling on future payroll before knowing the new owner's plans. The safest move could be trading the outfielder.

The Cardinals will wait to hear more about Chris Carpenter's status before making a move for a veteran starting pitcher in the wake of Jaime Garcia's shoulder injury. St. Louis wanted Jeff Francis badly, but the timing wasn't right; Garcia appeared to be healthy when Francis hit the market.

The Pirates have inquired about a number of corner infield bats, including Kevin Youkilis, Chase Headley, and Bryan LaHair. Some of those targets are more realistic than others, plus the trade market has yet to really materialize. There are far more buyers than sellers, though Pittsburgh has the pitching depth to swing a deal.

6:31pm: Castro is "first on the list of players [the Cubs] won't trade," according to a team that recently spoke to the Cubs, reports Danny Knobler of CBS Sports. Knobler also says the Cubs have told teams that they will cover as much as $45MM of the approximately $48MM remaining on Soriano's contract if the outfielder is moved (Twitter link). At least one team has already expressed interest in Dempster, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney.

1:45pm: The Cubs are letting teams know that nearly every player except Jeff Samardzija is available in trades, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. Some teams are already calling the 18-32 Cubs about potential deals.

"We're starting to get some early calls now," president of baseball operations Theo Epstein told Nightengale. "There might be fewer sellers than usual and a lot more buyers. This has a chance to help us. We need core players."

Though Epstein's longtime team, the Red Sox, hasn't been a seller for years, Chicago GM Jed Hoyer was trading Major Leaguers for prospects as recently as last summer. He acquiredJoe Wieland and Robbie Erlin from the Rangers for Mike Adams in 2011 when he was the Padres' GM.

When I described Bryan LaHair as having "quality sleeper potential" in a column for Roto Authority back in January, I certainly didn't expect this. Heading into Thursday's play, LaHair was hitting an absurd .381/.459/.794 in 74 plate appearances as the Cubs' regular first baseman and establishing himself as one of the best stories of this young 2012 campaign. A 29-year-old with just 219 Major League PAs to his name entering the season, LaHair was expected to do little more than keep first base warm for Anthony Rizzo, but LaHair's success has in all likelihood required a shift in the Cubs' short-term plans.

Or has it? LaHair is obviously not going to keep up his Ruthian numbers for the entire season, though his solid power numbers in the minors would hint that he's not going to fall completely off the map. If LaHair regresses even to around an .850 OPS by June, that's still a very solid output, and if he tops that number, even better. If LaHair is still swinging a hot bat by midseason, it would behoove the Cubs to at least test the market to see what they could get for the first baseman.

The obvious question is, why wouldn't the Cubs just hang onto LaHair and move him to a corner outfield spot once Rizzo is called up? Rizzo and his Triple-A slash line of .372/.422/.638 certainly look on pace to be in Chicago by midseason at the latest, and if he can translate even some of that quality to the Majors, then the Cubs would have a nice pair of bats to hit behind Starlin Castro.

The problem could be that the Cubs' preferred trade candidate, David DeJesus, is playing poorly. Teams aren't going to be be willing to acquire a 32-year-old who has a .687 OPS in 2011-12, is owed approximately $9.15MM through the end of the 2013 season and whose traditionally strong corner OF glove also seems to be failing him. Chicago's other corner outfielder, Alfonso Soriano, is set to earn approximately $51MM through 2014. Between Soriano's untradeable contract and DeJesus' lack of form, LaHair is a much more valuable trade commodity than either player and could become the trade chip that the Cubs hoped DeJesus could become.

The Tigers, Dodgers, Phillies and Brewers are just a few of the contenders and would-be contenders that could use a slugging left-handed bat at first, left, right or DH. Suitors wouldn't pay a king's ransom for LaHair since they would also have an eye on his middling career history, but power is an increasingly rare commodity, so teams would definitely give the Cubs some value if LaHair continues to smash right-handed pitching. LaHair would also be under team control through 2018 though since he's already 29, controllability is not a major factor in this case.

Cubs fans will no doubt be upset over the club dealing away the feel-good story in the midst of another sub-.500 year, but Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have stated on many occasions that they're rebuilding the Cubs from the ground up and that 2012 is intended as a rebuilding year. If Chicago can turn a 29-year-old career minor leaguer into a quality prospect or two, that's a better long-term move for the organization than hoping LaHair is a late-blooming superstar like Jose Bautista and can stay an elite hitter until the Cubs are ready to contend again.

Put it this way — if you asked a Cubs fan even one month ago if they'd be willing to see LaHair dealt for two of another team's top 15 prospects, even the most staunch Wrigleyville dweller would've jumped at that deal. One red-hot outlier of a month (or even a few hot months) shouldn't be enough to alter the Cubs' rebuilding plan.